Transport starting out of state

SliceOfLife

SliceOfLife

Forum Crew Member
Messages
91
Reaction score
1
Points
0
So I'm new to this whole private EMS thing and I was left scratching my head the other day when I heard dispatch send a BLS unit from MA to CT for a call. Now I know we can transport into another state without issues but I thought that was it. So assuming the facts are as follows, is this pick up in CT illegal?

-2 MA EMT without CT cert picking up a patient in CT for transport to MA.

-What if it was considerd chair car coverage?

Thanks
 
Generally the transport must start or end in the state of licensure. For instance two TX providers may pick up in OK and take back to TX, but may not do a transfer within the confines of OK. This is true at least in most of the south and Mid-Atlantic.

Mutual aid of course, changes this.
 
In general, we can only imitate a transport within our state of certification (and ambulance licensing). In theory this changes for a chair car coverage call, but in reality, you're loading a patient into an ambulance, so an ambulance-level assessment and documentation must be performed. If an ambulance company is so short on vehicles, it would be much smarter to move the BLS crew into a chair car, rather than have them perform the transport in an ambulance.
 
Don't know how it works in those states in particular, nor about chair car coverage, but I will point out that airmed services pick up and transport out of state patients on a fairly regular basis, so I am thinking it must be legal in some manner.

Some are even international.

I don't like economics past what I need to survive, but I certainly wouldn't want to deal with the billing of it unless it was pre-approved or prepaid.
 
Could also be a contract with a specific agency, hospital, insurance etc.
 
Veneficus said:
Don't know how it works in those states in particular, nor about chair car coverage, but I will point out that airmed services pick up and transport out of state patients on a fairly regular basis, so I am thinking it must be legal in some manner.
Click to expand...

That's probably due to the fact that most (all around here) air services require you hold multiple licenses. I.E. to work out of the Poplar Bluff AirEvac base you'll have to have certs for MO, ARK, and TENN.
 
I know a satellite program for our agency is dealing with this right now, although it's with 911 jobs. For this agency (100 miles away from our main operation), the closest trauma center by far is just across the state line. There are people (mostly employees who are lazy and would rather dump the trauma patient on the local 80 bed hospital and let them deal with it than drive the 35 miles to the trauma center) who are trying to block it, saying they can't transport across the state line. Now they're getting the state involved. I'm suspecting the state is going to approve transport to any appropriate facility.
 
It isn't like you are hanging out in that state soliciting business. That is illegal.

You have been hired privately to go in and return someone to your home state of origin. There is nothing illegal about that. Your certification and education did not become null and void at the state line. You are in your state licensed vehicle operating under your state guidelines and your state or department medical director. You are not pursuing the general public.

This is a pre scheduled pre approved non emergency private hire. It is done every day all over the country.
 
Where I am at you MUST be certified in the state of origin for the transport, even for pre-arranged private transports. The local HEMS are certified in 3 states because of this.
 
So research has provided me with this
19a-179-6. When license or certification not required
When an ambulance service which is operated from a location or headquarters outside the State of Connecticut provides emergency medical services inside of the State of Connecticut, no license or certificate shall be required of the service or its personnelnunder C.G.S. Sec. 19a-180 with respect to the following activities of such ambulance service:
(a) Transporting a patient from a location outside the state to a location within the state; or,
(b) Transporting a patient from a location within the state to location outside the state; or,
(c) Utilization within Connecticut for assistance during times of mutual aid mass casualty or
disaster situations; or,
(d) Responding in this state in accordance with a written mutual aid agreement which has
been approved by OEMS. (Effective June 14, 1988.)
Click to expand...

Doesn't seem ambiguious at all. I'm surprised I have heard the opposite over the years. I'll have to check into other bordering states now.
 
Was the BLS unit dispatched to a emergency call, or to a IFT?
 
In Indiana we could crop off or pick up just about anywhere for IFT transports. . It is easier than taking someone to the state line and turning them over to someone from the next state. Especially if you are going 3-4 states away.
We had a crew that took a patient to NYC and another one to Florida.
Emergencies we could do what we needed to: I was in Missouri once after dropping a patient off and got waved down by state cop who said that he had been waiting for 20 minutes for an ambulance and was told it would be another 30. We had the patient to the hospital faster than that.

We always stayed with what our protocols said.
 
You must log in or register to reply here.
Back
Top